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Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Why "An American Studies"?

Image via WikipediaWe decided on this name because the name can be read three different ways:

AN American Studies (as opposed to American Studies or THE American Studies) suggests that this just one attempt at making sense of a vast topic. Anyone who thinks they are covering everything essential to this enormous enterprise in a year long course — or perhaps in over the course of their lives — is just kidding him or herself.

This blog will reflect the "studies" — gathering, questioning, and trading information with a community of scholars — of one American. Millions of people are approaching the topic of "America", but we don't presume to speak for them.

An American [is a person who] studies. While this does not happen always (maybe it is an impossibility), it is necessary for our country to achieve its highest ideal — that all of its citizens can achieve self-fulfillment. Studies — in the broadest possible sense of that word — must be part of this achievement.

2 comments:

Hey i was Mr. Bolos and Mr.O'Connor student last year and i just wanted to say that the blog system and this classes is great. So far it is one of the most unique and most enjoyable experiences i have had at school. Srry this is off topic

Not that it matters a great deal to me, but, I think that the i in AIS should be put back. I think that it shows how the two subjects are not separated into two separate periods and they are combined or integrated. At the beginning of the school year we had a substitute teacher named Mr. Solob, and he believed that the class was separated into History one period and English another. Mr.Occonnor spent much of his time trying to convince Mr. Solob that AS is integrated and not separate. I feel that placing the I back in AIS will end the assumption that English and History are taught separately.

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